Kentucky...

We took a short trip to SW Kentucky last weekend, so that my wife could take my younger daughter shopping (for a dress to wear to her sister's wedding). Fortunately, they didn't make me join them at the mall, so I spent a few hours exploring. This is about 1/2 way between Murray, and Land-Between-The-Lakes. I saw several of these type builings around, not sure if they have a specific use. I presume they're for drying tobacco?? There was a lot of tobacco being grown in the area,

...

I'm A Highway Star?

It’s been over a month since I got my new set of wheels, finally got around to taking a “portrait”. Yep, it’s a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5SL. It’s doing just fine so far. I’m lovin’ the gas mileage: been getting 28-29 mpg around town, and was close to 32 mpg on the highway. OK, it’s not a 1968 Camaro SS, or even a 2008 Dodge Challenger. But neither is it a used-Yugo or some other little thing that won't fit the family.... Yep, I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’m pretty much just another middle class father of three needing a practical (though nice) car for getting back and forth to work, and the occasional road trip to visit family.

A New Microstock Adventure

Yep, I recently joined yet another microstock site. Stockxpert was recommended by several folks I know from one of the Yahoo groups I'm in, and I figured to give it a shot. I've been building my portfolio 5 images at a time, starting with images aleadey approved at other sites. No sales yet, but it has only been a couple of days.

This shot is from under the Rt. 19 bridge crossing the New River gorge, in WV. It hasn't been a big seller, but I still like it!

Another "random" day on the iPod...

But it seems to be dishing up some particularly good stuff (so far):

Name Of The game – ABBA / Them Changes – Kenny Wayne Shepherd / Strange Kind Of Woman – Deep Purple / I’m One – The Who / Cagey Cretins – Blue Oyster Cult / Pleasant Valley Sunday – Peter Tork & James Lee Stanley / Roundabout (Live) – Yes / Cancer – Joe Jackson / That Special Woman – Grinderswitch / Lawyers Guns & Money – Warren Zevon / I Need You - Kinks / Cripple Creek - Mike Seeger

What're y'all listening to??

Nationwide at Gateway

We had a great time at the race last night, here’s a few select photos

During qualifying: Steve Wallace pulling off the track, while Clint Boyer goes by at 130mph+
---

We were able to get autographs from several drivers, including Jamie McMurray, who had just won the pole
---

Coming down for the green flag to start the race
---

A little past 1/2 way, trouble coming out of turn 4. A lot of good cars were knocked out.
---

Winner Carl Edwards about to do his famous backflip, at the start / finish line
---

Practicin' Racin'

Some images from the practice session at Gateway International Raceway last night, in preparation for today's Nationwide race:

The unsponsored #57 of Nick Tucker, being pushed through the pit area.
---

Driver David Ragan signs his autograph for my son.
---

Driver Morgan Shephard looking under the hood of his "Racing For Jesus" car.
---

Another unsponsored car, #01 of Danny Efland. I like the colors, but these guys were 45th/46 in the first practice, 44th/45 in the final practice. I'm pretty sure only 35 teams qualify, so it seems doubtful they'll make the show.
---

Late in practice, the 99 of David Reutimann passes rookie Brad Baker. Reutimann was 5th fastest in the final practice.
---

Towards the end of practice, looking across to the entry of turns 3&4...

Qualifying is at 4pm today, the race starts at 8:30 (Central time). We'll be there!

Switched

A little slice-of-life snapshot, don’t ask me to explain. But it got me thinking about songs that include the concept of turning on, or turning off. Only 3 pop into my head, but there must be more. Here’s what I thought of:
Still You Turn Me On – Emerson Lake and Palmer
You Turn Me On (I’m a Radio) – Joni Mitchell
When The Music’s Over (Turn Out the Lights) – Doors

And other songs that apply?

Deadwood, Rock

Along the ridge of Kamiak Butte, in SE Washington State. We found this old, dead, blown over tree.... I thought it looks positively primeval. The roots had worked themselves around the rock, and pulled it up when it fell over. Anyway, I thought it was really cool, and took several pictures. An overview is below.. They've been festering for 6 weeks or so, along with many other photos, waiting for me to make time to sort through my files....

Dog Days

Ya know, when you're a kid... and it's a boiling hot day in summer... and you see a nice cool fountain... you just jump right in! I didn't know who this was, but I sure envied him.

Oil, That Is....

Black gold.... Texas Tea....

We have quite a few of these little wells in the various farmland around SW Illinois. I'll bet they're installing more as fast as they can, with the rising cost of crude. This image is from a couple of years ago, and this well wasn't pumping at the time...

What're You Listening To??

Another eclectic day on the iPod, random over "all songs". My playlist over the (too long)morning commute, in reverse order:

Expecting To Fly - Buffalo Springfield, Lonesome Roads - Dwight Yoakam, Concerto for 4 Harpsichords in A Minor, II. Largo - Bach, Long As I Can See The Light - Creedence Clearwater Revival, Get Up (Sex Machine) - James Brown, Murron's Burrial - Sountrack, Braveheart, All You Need Is Love - The Beatles, Ooh Baby Baby - Linda Ronstadt, That's The Way That The World Goes 'Round - John Prine, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning - Hot Rize, Jet Set (Sigh) / Rocky Mountain Way (Live) - Stephen Stills

How 'bout y'all?

Baby Pine Cones?

Messing with some macro photography on Kamiak Butte. Taken last month, before my return to the Midwest. I have a bunch of unprocessed photos still... You’ll be seeing Kamiak for a while to come.

This was shot with my “Kit Lens”, the 18-70mm zoom that came with my D70.

Eclectic, Part 2

As regular readers know, I play around with microstock photography. A nice little diversion, and it actually brings in a bit of cash flow! I was looking at my "most popular" files at my top performing site, and noticed that there's a pretty broad range of subjects... What can it mean??

Click on any image to see a larger version, or to buy a copy for your personal use!!

Happy Birthday America!!

Eclectic

My music tastes tend to vary pretty widely. And the advent of iPod has allowed me to carry just about everything with me. Every so often, when I’m not in a particular mood, I’ll just set it on random, and listen to whatever comes up. The last 12 songs played:

fair - ben folds five .......... late winter early spring - john denver .......... darkling days - cowboy junkies

i'm the man – joe jackson .......... if you could read my mind - gordon lightfoot .......... the first of the year - ruby hourse

you make me nervous - greenberry woods .......... don't ya tell henery - the band w/ bob dylan (live) ....... one - the iron horse (bluegrass covers of metellica)

for my lady – moody blues .......... goldberg variations 2 a 1 – glenn gould .......... ain’t that a shame – paul mccartney (live)

Never boring….

While Biking Near Belknap

In my last post (Lazy), I mentioned that I had been camping with my son, the first time I’d slept in a tent in over a decade. Well, after some thinking, the last time I slept in a tent was 1996, a whopping 12 years ago. That was part of a hiking/biking/canoe excursion to southern Illinos (Cache River Reserve). Here’s a photo taken during the bike portion of the weekend, it was 26 miles IIRC.

This is another one of those silly photos that I really like. An old building near Belknap, IL. Originally taken with my film SLR, this was scanned from a 4x6 print. And yes, I'm still lazy, as this image has been posted here before....